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Tag: banana

06
Sep
2013

Skinny Banana Chocolate-chip Dutch Baby

categories: Baking, Breakfast, Fall, Pancakes, Quick Fix

I know I went MIA AGAIN and you must think that I do not take the blog seriously but in my defense, life happened. It so happens that life loves to throw unlikely surprises my way! So what happened you ask… Well, my in-laws arrived in town 3 weeks back and due to the super-dramatic climate-change here, both caught Mono. Next in queue was my hubby dearest!

So in the midst of house-work and multiple visits to the clinic on daily-basis, I could squeeze in time to blog only 2 previous recipes. I was definitely active on social media. I did check-out what my other blogger friends were writing about but I did not have patience to write down a recipe or to edit pictures for the post. It’s not like I did not have recipes to post or I was not cooking. In fact, I was cooking more regularly than ever! At least 3 different meals were being prepared on a daily basis. And now that everyone is fit and fine, I’m going to take a little breather from home-cooking and going to eat-out little bit more and of course, start posting here regularly!

I bring you today another easy skinny pancake recipe. It is perfect for breakfast or Brinner, serves a small family perfectly that too without the hassle of flipping individual pancakes! You know I’m lazy and love quick-fixes more than anything right?! 😉

The Dutch Baby is another name for German pancake which is baked in a cast-iron skillet or a metal pan and its puff falls soon after being removed from the oven. This pancake is ready in a record time of 20-25 minutes from start-to-finish! Made with minimum ingredients, this is a perfect recipe for days when your refrigerator has scarce ingredients. You just need 2 eggs, little flour, some milk and 1 banana to be in business! Rest of the ingredients are your usual suspects.

I do not own a cast-iron skillet so I baked this in a 10-inch metal pan I have. Brown sugar, banana and cinnamon is a match made in heaven. The result is perfectly caramelized banana topped pancake topped with chocolate-chips. Your house is going to smell delicious for next few hours! Whattay way to start mornings or end work-laden days! Enjoy! 🙂

Skinny Banana Chocolate-chip Dutch Baby

Makes: 1 big Dutch Baby | Prep time: 5 minutes | Cook time: 15 to 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 banana thinly sliced
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk (skim milk, soy milk or almond milk)
2 or 3 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
2-3 Tbsp dark chocolate chips (Use more as per your liking)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 F.
Prepare a 9-inch oven-safe skillet by spraying with cooking spray or greasing it. Place butter in the skillet. Put skillet in the oven to melt the butter. You can do this while oven is still in preheating mode. Once butter has melted, in about 2-3 minutes, remove the skillet from the oven and set aside.
In a large bowl, add eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and whisk to combine.
Add the flour, cinnamon, salt and whisk until smooth and free from lumps.
Pour the batter on to the skillet and evenly top with banana slices. Sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and puffy. Mine was ready in 15 minutes.
Slice and serve optionally with a dusting of powdered sugar or a pour from maple syrup.

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23
Aug
2013

Skinny Banana Zucchini Chocolate-Chip Buttermilk Pancakes

categories: Breakfast, Pancakes, Quick Fix, Summer

Such a long title… huh?!

Don’t get scared!

Today’s recipe is just filled with way too many nice things! 🙂

I love my breakfast so much! That is the best meal of the day for me.. I love it so much that we usually end up having breakfast-for-dinner more often than I would like to admit… not that I’m complaining! I had made these pancakes on one of such nights. They were so so so good!

These healthy yet delectable pancakes are laden with chocolate-chips. Mashed banana and shredded zucchini are folded into the batter for a nutritious breakfast treat. These taste best served the traditional way with butter and maple syrup. If you’re even more calorie-conscious then use the light butter or skip it completely but maple syrup is a must. Because there is hardly any sugar added in the batter itself.

These pancakes have no eggs or butter in them.

Yup… Zero. Zip. Zilch. 😉

They are still quite fluffy, soft and aerated because of these ingredients ~ banana and buttermilk-baking soda. They create magic and make these pancakes possible without addition of butter or eggs.

Not a zucchini fan? Worry not… Banana successfully masks the tasteless zucchini for you! Trust me… these pancakes will rock your world!

They are so easy to whip up and hardly requires any prep time. The recipe makes enough for a small family and if you’ve any spares than freeze them for quick grab-n-go breakfast! I’m a zucchini fanatic so I love to have them about any time of the day! 😉

So go grab some zucchinis before they disappear!

Banana Zucchini Chocolate-Chip Buttermilk Pancakes

Yields: around 15 pancakes (4-inch size) | Prep time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1 + 1/2 cup shredded zucchini
1 + 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 very ripe bananas, mashed with fork
3 Tbsp brown sugar (dark/light)
1 + 1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
butter, for greasing the skillet

Directions:

Put shredded zucchini in a cheese cloth or muslin cloth and give it a good squeeze to remove extra liquid.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
In a separate bowl, whisk the mashed bananas, sugar, buttermilk and vanilla together.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir to combine and then fold in zucchini.
Heat a large non-stick or cast iron skillet over medium-low heat and grease with butter. Work in batches. pour scant 1/3 cup batter for each pancake into the skillet and sprinkle the uncooked top all over with chocolate-chips. When the edges begin to look dry and cooked and bubbles dot the top, flip and cook until golden on the other side.
Serve hot with butter and maple syrup.

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16
Jul
2013

Breakfast just got better! ~ Banana Almond Butterscotch Chip Cookies

categories: Breakfast, Cookies

Oh yes! Your breakfast just got a whole lot better with these cookies in your life! Made with the goodness of almonds, oats and whole wheat. So gooey because of the melted butterscotch chips! Deee-vine!

Banana √ Almonds √ oats √

Cookies taste best with a glass of Milk so √ 😉

What more you need for breakfast!

They are so soft and tender because of bananas, you will hardly notice the cookies are egg-free! Hence perfect for non-egg-eaters too! √ that!

So simple to make that it will be ready in 25 minutes flat! Yes, no need to chill the dough in refrigerator. We are going to use chilled mashed banana for cookie-dough. Just mash the banana nicely with the help of fork and refrigerate for half an hour before using… That’s it! No waiting before baking! It rhymes.. LOL… I know I’m such a crack-pot! 😛

So not that these require any coaxing but promise me you’ll make them!

Banana Almond Butterscotch Chip Cookies

Prep time : 15 mins | Baking time: 10 mins

Yields: 15-16 cookies

Ingredients:

½ cup almonds, ground
½ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup plus 1 Tbsp soft-rolled oats
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
2 Tbsp butter, at room temperature
4 Tbsp light brown sugar
1 banana, mashed and chilled (1/3 cup approx)
½ tsp almond extract
¼ cup butterscotch chips, plus more for topping (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, whisk together ground almond, wheat flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add banana puree and almond extract to it and whisk.
Slowly fold in dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix till flour pockets have disappeared. Fold in butterscotch chips.
Drop 1 Tbsp of cookie-dough onto a baking sheet at 1-2 inches apart. Bake for 9-10 minutes. Mine were ready in 10 minutes. Let it cool on baking sheet for 2-3 minutes and then transfer on a cooling rack to cool completely. At first, the cookies will be soft in center but will firm up once cool.

*Store them in an air-tight container for 3-4 days at room temperature.
*You can replace butterscotch chips with any other nuts or chocolate chips too!

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19
Jun
2013

Skinny Strawberry And Banana Frozen Whip

categories: Breakfast, Ice-creams, Summer

Skinny ice-~~cream~~??!! Not joking guys!

A delicious, skinny, dairy-free, sugar-free, 2-ingredient breakfast treat!

Is that an oxymoron?! 😉 Not anymore!

It’s a Wednesday… Middle of the week… So I thought of giving my creamy ice-cream posts a break and present this totally guilt-free fruity treat!

Still can not believe your eyes?

Trust me guys… This ice-~~cream~~ is magical! Totally melt-in-your-mouth kind!

Tastes totally rich (even if it’s not!) and decadent!

Make it either post-workout and gobble it up immediately (which is just what I did!) or make it pre-workout, chuck it in a freezer and polish it off once you’re back from sweating out!

Totally acceptable as a dessert too!

So how did I accomplish this? If you remember my Mango & Banana Oatmeal Smoothie with a hint of Basil and Peach, Apricot & Banana Minty Milk Smoothie recipe, then you know how I had used frozen banana chunks to get a silky smooth consistency for my smoothies. Frozen banana chunks get a total make-over when they are whipped in a blender. If you don’t like bananas then this is even better because they don’t even taste like bananas anymore after freezing and whipping! Super-ripe bananas give the best of results! I always have frozen bananas sitting in my freezer waiting to be used! If you don’t then freeze the fruit for at least 2 hours prior to making this.

To whipped frozen banana goodness, I added frozen strawberries and the result is in front of you! Put on your thinking caps and start thinking of all the different flavors you can eat this way and that too guilt-free! Add cocoa powder or peanut butter or Nutella or frozen mango cubes or frozen peach cubes… Let me know what you would like to experiment with!

Skinny Strawberry & Banana Ice-~~cream~~

Yields: 4 scoops

Ingredients:

1 large overripe banana, cut in to chunks and frozen
4 large strawberries, frozen
chocolate-chips for topping (optional)

Directions:

Add the frozen fruit in a blender or food processor bowl and whip for 30 seconds. Scrap down the sides and whip it again till you get a smooth, soft-serve kinda consistency.

Serve immediately topped with chocolate-chips (if using) or re-freeze any left-overs and let soften slightly before enjoying!

*This recipe is my entry for Event by Archana’s Kitchen – Summer Fiesta

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14
Jun
2013

Mango & Banana Oatmeal Smoothie with a hint of Basil

categories: Breakfast, Drinks, Summer

A true breakfast smoothie which is wholesome on its own and will keep you full till lunch hour.

This summer, I am trying to bring you as many mango recipes as possible before we run out of them for another year. Of course, we can freeze its chunks or pulp but it won’t be as good as having them fresh in the heat of summer when they are in abundance. Gosh! It would be good to be able to have mangoes all year round, isn’t it?! Anyways… I definitely plan on freezing lots and lots of mangoes til I run out of place in my freezer. Today’s recipe calls for frozen chunks of mango. So you can dice mango in pieces at night and freeze them overnight to make this smoothie in the morning.

Mango and banana is a classic combo! You can’t go wrong with it. Juicy, succulent mango whipped with creamy bananas. Heaven!

I am going to use frozen chopped bananas as well. It helps me attain smooth, thick and luscious consistency. These have become a true staple in my house. I deliberately buy them only to chop them and toss them in airtight container to freeze away.

Added to this classic combo is spoonfuls of quick-cooking oats. Anyone who hates oats won’t even know you have put them in there! So great for those picky-eaters! (I mean kids, of course! Not me!!! 😛 )

The huge flavor kick comes from the basil leaves added to the smoothie. So it is must.. do not skip or it wont taste the same!

Another benefit of this smoothie is that it is sugar-free. Mangoes in my part of the world are super-sweet and bananas I used were overripe which means they were pretty sweet too which helped me in omitting the sugar completely. If you feel the mangoes you have got are not sweet enough, add spoonful of honey to your smoothie.

You can easily make this smoothie vegan by using coconut milk or soy milk. Personally, I think coconut milk would go really well with mango and banana.

Mango & Banana Oatmeal Smoothie with a hint of Basil

Yields: 3 large or 4 small glasses

Ingredients:

Frozen chunks from 1 mango
Frozen chunks from 2 bananas
1/4 cup quick-cooking oats
4-5 basil leaves
1 cup milk
1/2 cup cold water or a little more
6-8 ice-cubes

Directions:

Add all the ingredients to the blender and blitz them into smooth mixture. Add more water if consistency is too thick for you. Garnish with fresh cherry and serve immediately.

*Add 2 Tbsp of honey if mango used is not sweet enough.

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